5 ms·

Why do you think they failed? Didn't FitBit just buy them?

Leszek 10y ago
FitBit bought them for the equivalent of pennies because they were, it seems, deep in debt.
cillian64 10y ago
Pebble have entered insolvency: http://www.proofofclaims.com/PebbleTech/documents/ http://www.proofofclaims.com/PebbleTech/documents/
- asmithmd1 10y ago
  A bankruptcy judge is going to have to approve all this. You can't sell all the valuable assets of a company the same day you declare bankruptcy - that could be considered fraud. If I had just fulfilled a big order of theirs yesterday on net 60 terms we had been operating under for the past 5 years I would be pretty upset.
listentojohan 10y ago
No, Fitbit are buying the assets of Pebble, the company is closing.
cschmidt 10y ago
Well, it was a acquihire, which is kind of sad. Not a failure for investors, perhaps, but certainly for their customers.
- joshstrange 10y ago
  > FitBit bought just their software assets for under $40 million. In 2015, Citizen offered to buy the whole company for $740 million. I'd say that was a failure for Pebble investors as they raised $58.81M according to crunchbase.
  - bb611 10y ago
    And of that $40 million, they still owe their creditors something like $27 million. So for investors/founders, they're all looking at <1/4 of their investment cash value.
detaro 10y ago
Bought because they likely could not survive on their own, cancelling their product lines & support for them, and for ~ 5 % of the highest buyout offer they received before. There are worse ways to fail, but it's not really success.
mabbo 10y ago
What is success? The product they named their company after is never going to be manufactured again. People who paid them for that product but haven't received it yet never will. Their company is dead. Or do you mean the fact that their founders and owners probably got some cash back for selling the whole thing? Well, how much do you get back for an acquihire? Fitbit didn't buy them for their tech, or they'd still be selling it.
- lettergram 10y ago
  They may have bought them for patents though. E-ink display on a watch could be pretty important for fitbit going forward.
  - blackguardx 10y ago
    Pebble never used an E-Ink display. They used Sharp memory LCD displays (which Nike funded the development of in the watch formfactor) and called them E-Paper because they promised E-Ink in one of their kickstarters.
cptskippy 10y ago
FitBit bought just their software assets for under $40 million. In 2015, Citizen offered to buy the whole company for $740 million. FitBit did not acquire their $24 million in debt or any physical asserts. They offered jobs to 40% of the staff.
- FT_intern 10y ago
  > In 2015, Citizen offered to buy the whole company for $740 million ouch, i can only imagine how the founders feel
  - cptskippy 10y ago
    It depends on the terms of the offer. He might have thought he was working in his employee's best interests by not taking the offer. Alternatively he could have negotiated support contracts for existing customers and provided stock options to employees then cashed out. But in hindsight he's probably kicking himself.
uiri 10y ago
No, Pebble is bankrupt and winding down operations. FitBit is buying some parts and offering jobs to the software people. This is not an acquihire. The designers and hardware people are not joining FitBit. The owners get nothing. Some of Pebble's creditors will likely also get nothing since the software/IP sale doesn't cover Pebble's debts.

FitBit bought them for the equivalent of pennies because they were, it seems, deep in debt.

Pebble have entered insolvency: http://www.proofofclaims.com/PebbleTech/documents/ http://www.proofofclaims.com/PebbleTech/documents/

asmithmd1 10y ago
A bankruptcy judge is going to have to approve all this. You can't sell all the valuable assets of a company the same day you declare bankruptcy - that could be considered fraud. If I had just fulfilled a big order of theirs yesterday on net 60 terms we had been operating under for the past 5 years I would be pretty upset.

listentojohan 10y ago

No, Fitbit are buying the assets of Pebble, the company is closing.

cschmidt 10y ago

Well, it was a acquihire, which is kind of sad. Not a failure for investors, perhaps, but certainly for their customers.

joshstrange 10y ago
> FitBit bought just their software assets for under $40 million. In 2015, Citizen offered to buy the whole company for $740 million. I'd say that was a failure for Pebble investors as they raised $58.81M according to crunchbase.
- bb611 10y ago
  And of that $40 million, they still owe their creditors something like $27 million. So for investors/founders, they're all looking at <1/4 of their investment cash value.

detaro 10y ago

Bought because they likely could not survive on their own, cancelling their product lines & support for them, and for ~ 5 % of the highest buyout offer they received before. There are worse ways to fail, but it's not really success.

mabbo 10y ago

What is success? The product they named their company after is never going to be manufactured again. People who paid them for that product but haven't received it yet never will. Their company is dead. Or do you mean the fact that their founders and owners probably got some cash back for selling the whole thing? Well, how much do you get back for an acquihire? Fitbit didn't buy them for their tech, or they'd still be selling it.

lettergram 10y ago
They may have bought them for patents though. E-ink display on a watch could be pretty important for fitbit going forward.
- blackguardx 10y ago
  Pebble never used an E-Ink display. They used Sharp memory LCD displays (which Nike funded the development of in the watch formfactor) and called them E-Paper because they promised E-Ink in one of their kickstarters.

cptskippy 10y ago

FitBit bought just their software assets for under $40 million. In 2015, Citizen offered to buy the whole company for $740 million. FitBit did not acquire their $24 million in debt or any physical asserts. They offered jobs to 40% of the staff.

FT_intern 10y ago
> In 2015, Citizen offered to buy the whole company for $740 million ouch, i can only imagine how the founders feel
- cptskippy 10y ago
  It depends on the terms of the offer. He might have thought he was working in his employee's best interests by not taking the offer. Alternatively he could have negotiated support contracts for existing customers and provided stock options to employees then cashed out. But in hindsight he's probably kicking himself.

uiri 10y ago

No, Pebble is bankrupt and winding down operations. FitBit is buying some parts and offering jobs to the software people. This is not an acquihire. The designers and hardware people are not joining FitBit. The owners get nothing. Some of Pebble's creditors will likely also get nothing since the software/IP sale doesn't cover Pebble's debts.